As a Director of the Football Club and more importantly a keen supporter of the Sea Eagles and a MWTS regular I thought it worth explaining the relationship between the Leagues Club, Football Club and the Sea Eagles and why people should consider choosing the upgrade options when renewing or signing up Sea Eagles membership

To get a good understanding of the make up of the â€œSea Eagles Familyâ€ go here: http://www.seaeagles.com.au/family

It is vital to ensure long term survival of our team that, wherever possible, fans support our club financially by becoming Sea Eagles members.

There are a number of different options available to suit most circumstances (see here - http://www.seaeagles.com.au/2013membership )

You will also see an upgrade option for the Leagues Club and the Football Club

These memberships donâ€™t give you access to games BUT they do offer a range of different benefits to fans.

http://www.manlyleagues.com.au

The Club and especially the â€œLyons Denâ€ bar is a popular spot for supporters to meet pre and post game.

As well as a place to eat and drink on game days the newly refurbished facilities offer food, drink and promotions every day and live entertainment each night, Wednesday to Saturday.

Members are also entitled to a 10% discount on all food and beverage purchases.

Membership is $10 per annum â€“ great value for locals or those that get to Brooky on a pretty regular basis and for anyone who likes to have a meal or snack and a couple of drinks pre/post game at the club then purchasing a membership should be a â€œno brainerâ€!

Importantly â€“ The Leagues Club has a long history of providing grants to support the Sea Eagles and a percentage of any profit goes to financially supporting our team - As they say - â€œSupport the Club that supports your team, Manly Leagues Home of the Sea Eagles!â€

As you may have noticed from the â€œfamilyâ€ overview - The Football Club and its members hold the preference share (i.e. giving us ownership of our teams name and colours and a guarantee that no less than 10 home games are played at Brookvale Oval each season).

For those of you who remember the dark days of the Northern Eagles or who are keen to see us play the majority of our games at Brookvale Oval this should in itself be an encouragement to take that upgrade option.

Of course, much has been discussed and published in the media (so it must be true!) regarding the workings of the Sea Eagles board and, it would appear, there are many that would like to have a greater say and more involvement in the direction of our club.

If this is important to you then it should be noted that Football Club members have representation (votes) on the board of the Sea Eagles via the 2 seats we hold.

We do of course have massive respect for our private owners (Penn Sport www.pennsport.com.au and Quantum energy www.quantumenergy.com.au ) and their involvement in our club as were it not for them then we wouldnâ€™t have a team in the NRL comp (and of course it would be remiss not to recognise Max Delmege and his family for their support during some very dark days for the club)

After a qualification period each member of the Football Club has the right to vote on how we, as part of the ownership group of the Sea Eagles, are represented alongside our private owners.

Our appointed representatives are currently Bob Reilly and Darrell Williams.

They represent the Football Club board who, in turn, are elected by and represent the members (us guys) who have an interest in the history of the club and would like to have a say in its future along with the private owners

So, hopefully this has helped?

To find out more about the Football Club (including our goals and aims) and to see copies of the annual reports (Under â€“ the club documents tab - makes for interesting reading on the recent history of our club!) please see here www.manlyfootballclub.com.au

The upgrade to membership of the Football Club when is purchasing your Sea Eagles membership is $25 or you will soon be able to join or renew on-line via our website (Membership runs Jan â€“ Dec)

Our constitution states that all available funds are used to purchase shares in the Sea Eagles so provides additional funding to the club whilst giving members additional equity in the club.

Any questions or for more information I can be contacted at info@manlyfootballclub.com.au

Membership to the football club and leagues club were a relatively cheap upgrade over the last couple of years Vidmar. Not happy about the hefty price hike this year. As an out-of-towner the cheaper cost in previous years negated any value I failed to get because I don't live in Sydney.

In spite of this I will be renewing all my memberships. I'm not sure how others in my position feel.

Membership to the football club and leagues club were a relatively cheap upgrade over the last couple of years Vidmar. Not happy about the hefty price hike this year. As an out-of-towner the cheaper cost in previous years negated any value I failed to get because I don't live in Sydney.

In spite of this I will be renewing all my memberships. I'm not sure how others in my position feel.

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Frank, thanks for the feedback.

I was the person who reviewed the pricing and proposed that we removed the combined / reduced price upgrade for Leagues/FC membership.

I feel it is only fair to explain why and my motivation.

With the $10 upgrade we shared $5 of that with the Leagues club meaning we had discounted our membership price by 80% !! (normal fee is $25)

There was a point that if we significantly increased our member numbers by offering the discount then it would balance out but, unfortuntely it didn't increase by anywhere near the numbers needed to justify offering such a discount again.

The Sea Eagles and Football Clubs constitutions both stipulate that when we have funds they allow us to increase our equity and that is a driver for us.

We will never have (and don't want) total ownership of the club again however, we need to continue to raise as much revenue as possible each year to allow us to contibute to the running costs of the team and maintain and grow our equity in Sea Eagles.

This is vital in allowing us to maintain a strong member based group and have a say along with the private owners.

Vid - is the plan still to have the Football Club AGM at the Leagues Club this year and also what date is being considered. My recollection previously it has been close to Xmas on a Friday night - difficult for some to get to with all the other functions around that time?

I have never been a football club or Leagues club member and 2012 was my first year as a season ticket holder.

I will be upgrading because even though I'm about as sharp as a hammer and have the business acumen of a tea towel, I know it helps the football team I love. The thought of Manly existing in some hybrid form a-la Northern Eagles is only slightly more palatable than them disappearing off the face of the earth altogether.

Thanks for posting those links Vidmar. I will read through them and hopefully I can make sense of it.

Vid - is the plan still to have the Football Club AGM at the Leagues Club this year and also what date is being considered. My recollection previously it has been close to Xmas on a Friday night - difficult for some to get to with all the other functions around that time?

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Fair point mate and agree it has been an issue - let me check and get back?
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Thanks Simon, let me know if I can help further